Brussels, 18/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - At the request of France, agriculture ministers from 20 EU member states came together in a hastily arranged meeting on Monday 18 February to criticise the “headlong rush” in World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations on the Doha Round. The 20 (the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Malta were the only ones not to join the group) deemed the latest compromise document by Crawford Falconer (Chairman of the WTO Agricultural Negotiations Committee) “unacceptable”, said French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier. The compromise text would threaten whole sections of the European agriculture economy, in particular fruit and vegetables and animal husbandry, he went on. He said that the document created an imbalance between the considerable concessions that the European Union would make in agriculture and the lack of progress in other sectors like services, geographical indications and industry. Barnier does not want a WTO agreement reached at the expense of agriculture. “What is going to happen is a bad agreement,” he said, given the desire by some (including the head of the WTO, Pascal Lamy) to speed things up between now and April. “We would rather have no agreement than a bad agreement,” Barnier said, speaking for the 20 countries. Several EU heads of state and government have also written to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso to warn against any temptation to give way European agricultural interests. (L.C.)